Cardinals clipped in opener
- Updated: November 10, 2015
Sacred Heart hits floor for first time since winning last year’s 1A state title, falls to Gadsden City; Titans’ Johnson goes for 40
Gadsden City’s Kilan Johnson (3) drives past Sacred Heart’s Kavarri Ross in Tuesday night’s season opener. Johnson scored a school-record 40 points as the 7A Titans beat the reigning 1A state champion Cardinals. On the cover, Sacred Heart coach Ralph Graves instructs the troops during a time out. (Photos by Kristen Stringer/Krisp Pics Photography)
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
GADSDEN – The best little high school basketball team in the state hit the floor for the first time as the defending state champions Tuesday night and had its much-bigger opponent on the run right out of the gate.
Sacred Heart was starting its season with the fire it ended with last year, but Gadsden City coach Reginald Huff wasn’t worried. He had Kalin Johnson in the wings.
Johnson, a senior so far undiscovered by college recruiters, came to life midway through the first quarter and went off for eight 3-pointers and 40 points — both school records — as the 7A Titans held off the 1A Cardinals 77-71.
“I’m not surprised; he’ll go for 50 a couple times this year,” Huff said. “He really didn’t have a great shooting night, missing free throws, missing a few layups, kind of slowing down and not going strong occasionally, but I wasn’t surprised (by his production).
“That’s why when we got down (8-0) I wasn’t surprised because I knew I had a 40-point guy that was still on the floor who hadn’t got started yet. Had we gotten down 40-0 I might be a little worried.”
The old record at the 10-year-old school was 37, set last year by second-team all-state Chris Dudley against Oxford.
Johnson originally was credited with 37, but a scoring correction caught a 3-pointer mistaken given to Shon McKinney in the second quarter. As it was, McKinney finished with 17 points.
The 5-foot-10 guard had 14 points in the first quarter, 21 in the first half. His breakaway dunk tied the game at 11 and his 3-pointer gave the Titans the lead for good 17-15. He had five of 3s in the first half.
“I was feeling it early,” Johnson said. “They were ranked high in the state … I just had to come out and play hard. I knew we couldn’t put our head down (when they got behind); we just had to stay in it. I knew we’d come back.”
Sacred Heart coach Ralph Graves declined to do postgame interviews because “we didn’t win.” He lamented his team’s discipline to Huff in their parting conversation and told him the Cardinals had a long way to go.
Kevion Nolan led the Cardinals with 18 points. Kavarri Ross, last year’s 1A Final Four MVP, had 16, but was scoreless in the fourth quarter.
Diante Wood had 14 points, but played the final 11 minutes with four fouls. D.J. Heath had 11 points, but drew raves from Huff for the way he handled the Titans’ pressure.
“They are awesome players,” Huff said. “Classification doesn’t matter; you’re putting five on five. You’ve got two or three of the top-ranked guys in the state; they can compete against anybody. That’s a good team.”
Despite their fast start, the Cardinals trailed by eight at the end of the quarter. They were down 14 in the second quarter, but rallied to get within four at halftime and had chances to go into the break tied but couldn’t convert.
A similar stretch of empty possessions cost them down the stretch.
They earned a 55-55 tie with 6:38 to play. Gadsden City went back up 62-55. Sacred Heart cut it to 59-62, but then went three straight possessions without scoring as the Titans pulled back ahead 67-59 with less than four minutes to play.
“We try to create our own luck,” Huff said. “Both teams were so good and they both played so hard, it just came down to who wanted it the most. I believe because we had more depth than they did it may have bothered them down the stretch … and it paid off.”
Sacred Heart’s Kevion Nolan (23) cuts past the defense of Gadsden City’s Denzel Mooney for two of his team-high 18 points. (Photo by Kristen Stringer/Krisp Pics Photography)
Gadsden City 77, Sacred Heart 71
SACRED HEART (0-1) – Diante Wood 5 4-6 14, Kavarri Ross 6 2-3 16, Sam Miller 2 0-0 4, Murdock Simmons 3 1-2 8, D.J. Heath 4 3-5 11, Stephen Stancil 0 0-0 0, Kevion Nolan 8 1-2 18. Totals: 28 11-18 71.
GADSDEN CITY (1-0) – Jacob Hyde 4 0-0 8, Jalyn Brewster 0 0-0 0, Deonte Jones 2 0-2 4, Kalin Johnson 14 4-7 40, Darnell Mooney 1 0-2 2, Denzel Mooney 1 0-3 2, Mykel Woods 0 0-0 0, Luster Jackson 0 0-0 0, Shon McKinney 6 5-9 17, Toryque Bateman 2 0-0 4. Totals 30 9-23 77.
Sacred Heart 17 19 18 17 — 71
Gadsden City 25 15 15 22 — 77
3-point goals: Sacred Heart 4 (Ross 2, Simmons, Nolan); Gadsden City 8 (K. Johnson 8). Fouled out: Simmons. Total fouls: Sacred Heart 20, Gadsden City 20.
Sacred Heart’s D.J. Heath (L) races past his bench and Gadsden City’s Darnell Mooney as he brings the ball upcourt. (Photo by Kristen Stringer/Krisp Pics Photography)
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